ITU opens up huge
online resource

Move will enable free
downloads to the public

Geneva, 10 September 2007 — ITUStandards produced by the Telecommunication
Standardization Sector (ITU-T) are now available online without charge. The
announcement follows a highly successful trial conducted from January-October
2007, during which some two million ITU-T Recommendations were downloaded
throughout the world.

The aim of the trial was to “increase the
visibility and easy availability of the output of ITU-T”. Offering standards for
free is a significant step for the standards community as well as the wider
information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. Now, anyone with
Internet access will be able to download any of over 3000 ITU-T Recommendations.
These are used by equipment manufacturers,
telecommunication network operators and service providers throughout the world
to drive the information society. The move further demonstrates ITU’s
commitment to bridging the digital divide by extending the results of its work
to the global community.

Mr Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s
Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), presented the results of the
trial to the 2007 meeting of ITU’s Council. He said that not only had the
experiment been a success in raising awareness of ITU-T, it would also attract
new members. Most importantly, he noted, it had helped efforts to bridge the
“standardization gap” between countries with resources to pursue standardization
issues and those without. “There has been very positive feedback from developing
countries,” said Johnson. “Last year exactly 500 ITU-T Recommendations had been
sold to developing countries; this year, after allowing free access, they have
downloaded some 300 000.”

ITU-T Recommendations are
developed in a unique contribution-driven and consensus-based environment by
representatives of industry and government, with industry providing the most
significant technical input.

A strong focus of current standards
work is laying the foundations for the next-generation network (NGN). Other key
areas include IPTV, ICT in vehicles, cybersecurity, quality of service,
multimedia, emergency communications and standards for access, such as VDSL 2 —
very high speed digital
subscriber line 2, the newest and most advanced standard of DSL broadband
wireline communications.